hipster trap

http://www.lesinrocks.com/actualite/actu-article/t/61602/date/2011-03-14/article/des-pieges-a-hipsters-dans-new-york/

for those who want to eat hipsters...

best ice cream in the world? at least in Brazil

Though I would not say it is the best ice cream I have ever had, the Sorveteria Da Ribeira in Salvador, Brazil definitely comes close. It has more flavors than I have time to try (over fifty) and many of which are tropical fruits that do not exist outside of Brazil (Acai, Umbu, Jaca, to name a few).  I tried around ten flavors before settling for Pistachio and Tapioca (though green coconut was another favorite).  Though I love tapioca ice cream, it ended up being bland compared to the richness of the pistachio ice cream and I wished I had gone with something with more punch.  I am a self proclaimed pistachio hater..that is I dislike fake pistachio flavor to the extent to I avoid it at all extremes.  But I love pistachio nuts and this ice cream brought out real pistachio flavor and combined it magically with a sweet and creamy ice cream base.  I was so impressed with the pistachio that when I saw a Sorveteria Da Ribeira outpost at Praia de Forte (a small beach town I visited an hour from Salvador) I immediately tried to buy more.  Unfortunately I found out that they only sell pistachio at the main store, so instead I tried Maracuja or passion fruit, which was an incredibly delicious sorbet.  If you are in Salvador you must visit!

mostly gone pistachio ice cream...it melted so quickly...

Speculoo Cookies

Speculoos: a famous french cookie made with cinnamon and allspice
Cookies are incredibly easy and delicious and can easily mold to the ingredients you have on hand.

For this recipe, there were a few challenges...I could not find allspice, powdered cinnamon or cloves.  I did find cinnamon sticks and whole cloves.  To use these spices i had to improvise.   I ended up grating the cinnamon with a cheese grater and made a tea with the cloves by boiling them in water.  The cookies turned out perfect with a bit of clove and the best cinnamon I have ever tasted. If you are making this abroad and do not have a cup measure, i just used a small bowl.  Be sure not to pack the brown sugar too tightly into the cup  The ratios still work for this recipe.

1/3 c butter
2 1/2 c flour
1 eggs
1 1/2 c brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp clove tea (boil water with cloves and let steep for 5 min)
1 tsp bicarbonate (baking soda)
1/4 tsp salt (2 pinches)
1 tsp vanilla

tsp= teaspoon

Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius/350 degree farenheit
Mix flour, spices, salt, bicarbonate in a bowl.
In a separate bowl beat sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla until creamy, then add the dry ingredients.
Let sit in fridge until dough is firm and make into round balls.  Cook for 8-12 minutes.  It is very easy to cook these too long and they become very crunchy.  Keep a close eye on them in the oven.  When the edges are brown and they looked mostly cook take them out of the oven.

easter=chocolate

In Brazil, a country known for its production of cacao, dark chocolate is difficult to find.  I have tried several different varieties marked as 'dark' chocolate, none of which come close to dark in my book (<45% cacao content).  I have asked many locals about this phenomenon and they say that there is no good chocolate in Brazil because it is all exported out of the country.  Though I have yet to find any decent dark chocolate even in the Brazilian equivalent to Whole Foods (Perini), some imported chocolate can be obtained (for ~$6 or R$11 you can buy a bar of Lindt chocolate...or for a better deal for R$3, a bar of dark Toblerone... none of which are produced in Brazil).  I know there are some chocolatiers at the shopping malls and I plan to try them out...

One thing I am excited to try out is Suco de Cacao..cacao juice!  Apparently it tastes nothing like chocolate and comes from the fruit of the cacao.  The fruit has a while pulp that can be blended into juice, also inside the fruit are seeds that are roasted and eventually turned into chocolate.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobroma_cacao

But one thing that is not lacking is milk chocolate....especially during Easter.  Like many other religious and mostly catholic countries, Easter is celebrated with chocolate eggs...giant, chocolate eggs that contain morenchocolate inside them.  Here in Brazil, there are no Easter bunnies or flying bells to deliver eggs (real or chocolate)... but children (and me) do love their chocolate eggs.

I diverge....

As I am in Brazil for a bit, I thought I would share some of the food here.  Unfortunately the hipster culture has not yet hit and tropical, island-style reigns supreme.  Though I have spotted a few pairs of brightly colored, plastic sunglasses....
I particularly like panzinho that has a yummy cheesy interior and cheese dust exterior :)

And papayas are delicious! (though randomly some people do not think so....I would say 1/3 of people i know do not like papaya!)  They are called mamao here; I also found mamao hawaiian. Tastes like home!

hipster pizza?

Yesterday the blog Mission Mission posted photo of a pizza being rolled out with a bottle of wine and termed it "hipster pizza".

 Credit to soccerkarate

For lack of a rolling pin ''hipsters" resort to using wine and liquor bottles to roll out their pizza dough. 
A few other thoughts.. why not use a full can of PBR? Or your shiny, steel Klean Kanteen.  The bicycle handlebars that have been sitting around your apartment for ages...

these hipster links need to be shared even though no food is involved

you know the hipster movement has gotten to big when there are hipster cat and dog sites, its gone interspecies.

http://www.hipsterkitty.com/

http://hipsterpuppies.tumblr.com/

as well as there is now a site to help hipster guys find the perfect hipster wife.....

http://www.hipsterwifehunting.com/